Rumour Mill
by HollyKalina23
Summary: It all started with a rumour. A silly, childish rumour. Valerie Grey couldn't even begin to fathom the consequences of the actions she took. Not until it was too late. R&R! Rated T for swearing and dark themes. Updated for Halloween!
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_Hi everyone! _

_Recently, I've been having trouble with severe writer's block, as well as a few more personal issues. A few of those personal issues are resolved, although a couple are pretty much still going on, and my writer's block has eased somewhat. Unfortunately, it seems like the next chapters for Power of Blue (which is in the process of being renamed) and Aura Guardians in Time are on hold for the foreseeable future. _

_On the bright side, this fanfic was born! Some of the ideas for this fanfic were things I experienced, others came to me in the form of plot bunnies. I haven't seen a story out there like this one in this fandom, at least not in the last year or so (I haven't read every fanfic out there so there could be some for this fandom that I haven't read), so I decided to upload this fanfic. _

_One last thing, for any Valerie fans out there, sorry in advance. This fic will have Valerie bashing but not until later. _

**X-X**_  
_

It all started with a rumour. A silly, childish rumour, spread through a school of young, impressionable teenagers; teenagers who would rather stab their friends in the back than stand by them. The rumour started with one Valerie Grey, resident ghost fighter and girlfriend to Tucker Foley. Started from feelings of jealousy, spite and anger, Valerie couldn't even begin to fathom the consequences of the actions she took. Not until it was too late.

* * *

Danny Fenton's day was turning out to be a good one. He woke up early, due to a night of peaceful sleep instead of patrolling the town for rogue ghosts, and was able to grab some food before fazing to the roof of his house, transforming into Danny Phantom and flying off to school, getting there in time to quickly finish his homework for Lancer's English class. His best friends, Tucker Foley and Samantha 'Sam' Manson, arrived not long after him and helped him finish his homework, then talked with him for a while before the school bell rang, signalling the beginning of class.

His first two classes went well, as they normally did. There were no ghostly distractions this time, which Danny was thankful for.

At first break, he, along with Sam and Tucker, sat together at one of the tables outside, discussing further ghost-related issues that had come up in the last week, such as Technus reappearing after almost a year locked in the ghost zone and Skulker's everlasting attempts at procuring Danny's 'pelt' for his collection wall.

Lancer's class after first break went surprisingly well. Danny handed in his homework to his surprised teacher, who graded it while his class read through three chapters of their assigned book, _The Taming of the Shrew_. After class, Lancer handed Danny his homework back with a respectable B- written in the corner in bright red pen. Smiling happily, Danny felt happier than he had in a while.

But at lunch time, that illusion came crashing down around him.

He sat with Sam in the cafeteria, eating his ham and salad sandwich while Sam had her 'Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarian' meal when Tucker came storming up, fire lighting up his normally dark brown eyes. Slamming both of his hands down on the surface of the table, not even caring that he'd almost knocked over Sam's and Danny's water bottles with the force of his slam, he glared daggers at his best friend.

Danny looked into the face of his best friend, frowning at the intense glare he was receiving. "Tucker, what's up?"

Tucker, in response, glared harder. "Well, when you go around calling my girlfriend horrible things, it tends to put me in a bad mood."

Danny started. "What? I-"

"You called her a slut! And a bitch!" Tucker raged, not letting Danny finish his sentence. "She just told me! She's crying her eyes out right now because of what you said, Danny! Don't you know that words hurt?"

Danny looked at Tucker confused. "Tucker, I didn't say anything like that to her."

Tucker saw red. His girlfriend told him what Danny had done and he believed her. _How dare Danny deny what he did_, Tucker seethed. "Don't lie, Danny! Valerie wouldn't lie to me, I trust her!"

Standing slowly, Danny met his friend's glare with a steady gaze. "I'm you best friend, Tucker. Why would I say those things to your girlfriend? What reason do I have to do that to Valerie?" He said calmly.

By this point, Tucker and Danny had amassed quite a crowd. Students stared at them with interest, eyes gleaming at the new opportunity for gossip for the grape vine.

"You don't like the fact that I have a girlfriend and you can't even muster up the courage to ask Sam out like you've always wanted to! You're jealous!" Tucker spat.

Danny was shocked. He took a step back from his raging best friend. "Tucker, I'm happy for you and Valerie. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Tucker, or Valerie. Please, believe that."

"I believe my girlfriend, _Daniel_!" Tucker yelled. "I believe the girl who was crying in my arms not fifteen minutes ago, afraid of hurting our friendship because of what you said to her!" Tucker shook his head and let out a dry, barking laugh. "You know what, until you admit what you said to her and apologize, I can't be friends with you."

Tears gathered in the corner of Danny's eyes, knowing he was losing his best friend. "Tucker, please, believe me. I wouldn't do anything to hurt either of you. I don't know where this rumour came from, but that's all it is. I would never say anything like that to her." Danny pleaded.

Tucker glared once more at Danny. "If you can't admit it, don't bother trying to talk to us, Danny. We're done." With that, Tucker stormed off in search of his probably still distraught girlfriend.

Danny watched Tucker walking away; feeling like a part of his soul was leaving him forever. Tears burned his eyes and he rubbed furiously trying to get rid of them. He turned back to Sam but froze before he could say anything.

Sam looked stricken. She knew that Tucker wouldn't lie about what he heard, but she didn't think that Danny was guilty of what he'd been accused of either. It left her in the middle, which was the one place she didn't want to be.

"Sam?" Danny asked tentatively, worried about her reaction.

Sam sighed, moving her amethyst coloured eyes to connect with Danny's ice blue. "I don't know who to believe, Danny. I really don't. I'm sorry." She stood, gathered her things and walked away in the same direction as Tucker, intending to talk to him and his girlfriend about Valerie's accusations against Danny.

Danny felt his heart fall into his stomach. His best friend had abandoned him and by the looks of it, Sam would be on her way to doing the same. He sighed, figuring Sam would help sort it out and it would be over by the end of the day.

Not feeling hungry anymore, Danny picked up his tray and dumped it in the trash can, walking out of the cafeteria, well aware of the stares aimed at his back.

By the end of the day, things had gone from bad to worse for Danny.

He walked outside with everyone else leaving the school and waited off to the side of the main steps for Sam to walk home with, as was their usual routine. Tucker usually joined them, unless he had chess club or some other after school club meeting, but Danny knew that Tucker would just ignore him when he came out.

And that's exactly what Tucker did. He looked at Danny, just a brief glance, turned his nose up and walked away, Valerie hanging on his arm. Danny frowned, upset that his best friend didn't even give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Danny Fenton!"

Danny snapped his head around to see his other best friend marching towards him, a look of anger on her face. She came close to him, raised her hand and swung, slapping him across the face. The slap echoed and the remaining students, including resident bully, jock and captain of the football team, Dash Baxter and his fellow jocks, stopped and watched the scene unfold before them.

Holding his red, stinging cheek with tears gathering once again in his eyes, Danny looked at Sam with pleading eyes, silently asking why she slapped him.

She just glared at him. "You know why, Danny Fenton. How could you hurt Valerie like that? She didn't do anything to you!"

Grasping Sam's forearms, Danny tried to plead with her again, make her understand that he would never hurt Valerie the way she claimed. But Sam ripped her arms away, glared one last time and stormed away, her backpack flung over her shoulder. She was furious and knew that if she stayed one more moment, she would do something else she'd regret.

Danny watched her leave, feeling like his heart was being torn in two. Both of his friends had left him in a single day. Could it get any worse?

* * *

Well, as Danny found out when he got home, it could and would get worse.

Danny's parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, had spent the day working on a new invention, which had left a huge mess in the basement that they expected Danny to clean.

Not only was the mess in almost every corner of the basement lab but Danny had to wear two sets of gloves to avoid getting it on himself because whatever was in the chemical goo around the lab was affecting his ghost form, and his human form slightly. Already a small, blue bruise was blooming on the inside of his right wrist, making it feel tight and rigid.

Danny cleaned the lab as best he could, working on it for hours. At seven, he called up to his parents to see if he could take a break. His dad called back down that he could have a break when he finished. When he finally had finished, it was after 10 and his parents had gone to bed. Jazz, his sister, would be studying, or rather, cramming for next week's Spanish final.

Danny trudged up the stairs from the basement, stomach growling, to find that no food had been left out for him. He checked the oven, the microwave, the fridge; nothing. _Dad must have eaten it_, Danny thought bitterly. With nothing left to do, and no-one left awake, Danny phased up through the floor of his room, and got ready for bed.

Lying down, Danny finally left the events of the day overwhelm him and he cried. He cried for his friends who abandoned him, for his parents who forgot about him and for his sister who didn't care. He had no idea what the next day would bring but he hoped it would be better than this one.


	2. Chapter 2: Ghostly Distraction

_So there have been a few of you who have said in the reviews that you don't think or you can't believe that Sam would believe Tucker and Valerie over Danny. Just to put it into clarification; Sam was torn between who to listen to, which one of her friends to believe. And she cares about everyone's happiness. But Sam does know that Danny and Valerie have had their issues due to Danny being Danny Phantom and Valerie being a ghost hunter under Vlad Masters' tutelage (mentorship), even though Valerie doesn't know who Danny Phantom really is. So there's that seed of doubt already in Sam's mind and with Valerie crying and seeming so upset, the seed grew and grew and Sam started to believe Valerie and Tucker. In her mind, Danny is the one who's done wrong and she's still being a good friend by believing Tucker and Valerie. _

_I also had one reviewer say that if Sam and Tucker ever do apologize to Danny, that he shouldn't forgive them so easily. I've already planned out key points in the plot and what happens between Sam and Tucker, and Danny is a major one, as well as Danny's confrontation with Valerie (whenever it comes up). There is also one other major twist that I already have planned for a few chapters from now, probably around chapter 8 or 9. So be on the look out for those._

_It's pretty amazing just how many people reviewed the first chapter! Set a record for first chapters of all of my stories. I just feel really blessed to have such a positive reaction from my readers. Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think of this fanfic, even if you only ever review once, I'd like to hear from everyone to read, favourited and followed this fanfic._

_The next couple of chapters are already written but because I can only get on every couple of days now, updates might only happen once a week, maybe less. It just depends on what's happening. I'll try do update once a week, if not once a fortnight (2 weeks)._

_Now, onto the next chapter!_

**X-X**

The next day wasn't better than the one before. Not by a long shot. Danny was late to school and for that; Lancer gave him detention for that afternoon. Sam and Tucker avoided him and hung out with Valerie, who would watch Danny every now and then but turn and sniff pathetically whenever he caught her staring and bury herself more into Tucker's side. Tucker then glared at him, along with Sam, and Danny would turn away, feeling worse than before.

The whole school day continued like that, with the other students watching and snickering quietly but after his detention was the worse part of Danny's day.

Lancer had assigned him extra homework on Shakespeare that he had to finish before he could leave. It seemed relatively straight forward so it didn't take Danny too long to finish it. He stepped outside and walked to his locker.

A hand grabbed him before he could reach it and threw him against the row of lockers on the other side of the hallway. Danny looked up to see that Dash had cornered him in the empty hallway and slammed him against the locker. The dial on the locker had jabbed into his back and he cried out in pain. Dash smirked at Danny's pain and punched him in the stomach. The air whooshed out of Danny's lungs, leaving him breathless and in more pain. His weak legs collapsed underneath him but that didn't stop Dash's assault.

A swift kick to his ribs had Danny screaming in pain, thick tears leaving trails down his face and splashed onto the floor. A beefy hand grabbed his right wrist, already painted with a small bruise, and yanked upward, pulling Danny with it and resulting in pain flaring in his wrist. Dash twisted Danny's wrist, rejoicing in the weak cry of pain coming from him.

He smirked evilly.

A split second later, Danny was howling as Dash slammed his wrist down onto one of the locker dials. To Danny, it felt like it had broken, the pain was so intense.

A sharp kick to the back of his left knee sent him to his knees again, with Dash towering over him, his face twisted into a sick happiness.

"We're gonna have so much _fun_, Fenturd!"

An hour later, Dash walked out of the school, with bruised knuckles and a sick smile on his lips.

Danny limped out fifteen minutes after Dash and he was covered in blooming bruises, blood pouring from a gash on his forehead from having his head slammed into the locker. It matted in his hair and stuck to his skin. His leg throbbed from a particularly well aimed kick to the back of his knee and Danny knew that it was at the very least severely sprained. Finger shaped bruises crawled up his arms, disappearing underneath the sleeves of his shirt.

Danny's dull blue eyes searched around, trying to find any sign of Dash or one of his jock friends hanging around to beat on him some more. Thankfully, it seemed like they'd all gone home either with or before Dash did. Moving slowly to a more secluded area, in case one of the other people in town spotted him, Danny took a moment to check his wrist. It was painfully swollen, painted a grotesque black/blue colour. He prodded it carefully with a finger, having gained some experience with sprained wrists since the accident that had given him his ghost powers. It didn't feel broken, just severely sprained. He doubted he'd be able to lift even a feather with it at the moment.

Sighing sadly, he transformed into his alter-ego and flew home, fully intending to get some medical supplies from the lab to fix his wrist and knee.

But his parents had more work for him again when he got home around 5:30 that afternoon. They'd been trying to invent a device that would detect a ghost (once it was in close proximity) and fire specialised eco-blasts to neutralise it. It wasn't going well for them and when Danny walked into the lab, he saw the destruction they'd caused.

Broken beakers were on the floor, vials smashed, expensive equipment turned over or destroyed. And the almost ever present layer of goo that covered the lab every time one of his parents' inventions malfunctioned or exploded.

Danny stood there for a moment, cataloguing the mess, before walking back into the kitchen where his mother was beginning to cook dinner. "Mum, there's so much mess down there. Can't Jazz help me?" Danny asked, knowing his request was reasonable and knowing it would take him hours to do on his own, longer than normal due to his injured wrist and knee.

Maddie didn't even turn to face her son when she answered. "She has that test next week she needs to study for. We mustn't disturb her. Besides, it's not that much mess, Danny. Don't complain, just clean it up."

Her son stared in shock at her turned back but she didn't notice. Neither her nor her husband had even looked at their son since he'd gotten home, instead sending him to clean up their mess. Maddie knew she had to get dinner ready by the time Jack woke up from his nap, which would be in two hours, so she didn't have time to clean up the lab. Danny could do that for her. _He needs to start pulling his own weight_, her husband's voice sounded in her head from earlier that week. She had nodded in agreement, thinking the same thing.

Danny sighed, trying to not let tears build up in his eyes. His mother had just told him to stop complaining, not even giving him a glance away from her precious cooking. He gathered up his cleaning supplies and headed down into the lab, knowing it would be hours before he would see the outside of it again.

He scrubbed benches, cleaned off the damaged equipment, vacuumed up broken shards of glass from the floor and the worktops. He cleaned the ghost portal, which has taken the brunt of the goo explosion, and turned back over the chair, equipment and other devices that had been overturned during the explosion.

Danny called out to his mother once, around 8:30, and asked if he could come up for something to eat, as he'd spelled the spaghetti she was making from the lab. His stomach had growled in response to the question but then plummeted when she called back that he had to finish cleaning the lab before he was allowed out of it.

Nearly seven hours later, he was finally done. His arms ached, his knee and wrist burned from excess use, even though he'd tried to keep weight off his knee and use his right hand more to pick things up or clean them. His ribs burned with pain and he was ready to collapse. Danny knew he could have transformed and gotten the work done faster because he wouldn't have had to hobble around with a sore knee but the fear of one of his parents' inventions recognising his eco-signature or his family peeking in on him quickly shoved that idea into the discarded pile.

Too tired to walk the stairs, he phased from the lab to the kitchen and cast a brief glance around. No food was left out and another quick glance in the fridge, microwave and oven told Danny that there wasn't any left. _Dad probably ate it all again_, he sighed. _Oh well, I wasn't that hungry anyway_.

He phased to his bedroom, desperately wanting to sleep. But then he remembered the gash on his forehead. He hadn't felt the pain from it until now.

Danny walked into the bathroom across the hall quickly, trying not to wake anyone up. Turning the light on, Danny saw that blood had caked in his hair, which stuck to his forehead along with dry swear from working in the basement that afternoon.

Grabbing a small wash cloth, he carefully cleaned away the dried blood and pulled his hair free, making sure not to disturb the tender and fragile skin that had begun to scab over.

When he was satisfied that all of the blood had been wiped off and his face cleaned, Danny tip-toed back to his bedroom. His bed called to him, wanting him to sleep on it. And Danny was a willing victim of his bed's seduction. But it seemed as though sleep just wasn't in sight for Danny.

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Danny growled in frustration, instantly transforming into Danny Phantom. He turned intangible and flew out of his window and began to look for that annoying Box Ghost. He found him two streets over, once again ransacking the local post office for post boxes. Danny cleared his throat, startling the Box Ghost. "You know, I thought I put you in the Ghost Zone, Boxy."

The Box Ghost trembled, feeling fear flood through him. "Well, see, uh, you did. But I'm out again and I'm not going back!" He stood straight against Danny, eyes glowing with all the power he possessed, which wasn't much, and boxes began to float up from the floor, rushing towards Danny.

Danny just sighed and phased through all of the boxes, leaving them piled high against the still-locked front door, one particularly full box smashing through the front store window. Wrapping a hand around the thermos that was always attached to the belt at his waist, Danny uncapped it, ignoring the pain the movement caused his wrist and ribs, and pointed it at the Box Ghost.

The Box Ghost screamed the beam from the thermos hit him and he was sucked into the thermos, cursing Danny Phantom for once again capturing him.

With his job done, Danny phased out of the post office and began to fly home, but was stopped when an eco-blast hit him in his already bruised ribs, causing pain to flare up once again. He stopped mid-flight, roaring in pain, and pressed a hand against his side. Danny stayed floating in the air, trying to get air back into his lungs.

His attacker wasn't about to give him the chance. They fired again, barely grazing his elbow and another blast singed the hair on his forearm. Danny took off flying, still trying to get air into his lungs but his survival instincts overtook him.

He spun around, did flips that made his stomach clench, and phased through objects to avoid the eco-blasts being aimed at him.

"Stop running, Whelp! You know that I'll catch you!" Skulker's displeased voice shouted. "I must have your pelt for my wall!"

Danny froze, turning around and raising a shield against the eco-blast that shot towards his chest. His eyes glared daggers at Skulker, glowing a sickly green, finally having had enough from the hunter. "I am not a whelp! I am not a trophy for you to collect! And while you are running around trying to catch me, I have more important things to deal with! Like the fact that everyone hates me for something I DIDN'T DO!" Danny roared, ripping the cap off the thermos and aiming it at Skulker.

Skulker had no time to avoid the beam coming from the thermos and for once, he didn't want to. He watched his whel- _Phantom_ glare hatefully at him, oblivious to the stream of tears casting two identical lines down his cheeks, which were red from adrenaline and rage.


	3. Chapter 3: Nagging Thoughts

_Hi all! I'm back with a new chapter once again! I'm blown away by just how many people have favourited, story alerted and reviewed! It really warms me to read all your reviews and know that you guys like my story._

_So this chapter is a little different. It has a bit more of a focus on Danny's family rather than the school. And a slight focus at the beginning on how Danny is feeling. I had to add that in there._

_The next chapter may be a little shorter. It's almost finished being written so it shouldn't be too long before it's uploaded for you guys to read, maybe a week or two depending on my school work and family stuff. But the next two after that should be a little longer than the next one because there's going to be a major plot point happening within the next three chapters. So look forward to that._

_Anyway, onto the chapter!_

**X-X**

After Skulker's appearance, Danny roamed the skies above Amity Park for over an hour, searching for any more runaway ghosts. Luckily, he found none, so he flew home and collapsed on his bed.

Transforming back into being human, Danny was hit with an almost overwhelming pain in his wrist and knee that had been ignored for far too long due to the adrenaline in his system. He cried silently, tears burning in his eyes and blurring his vision. He willed the pain to go away, closing his eyes tightly and sighed in relief when it dulled down somewhat.

But his will did nothing to stop the almost blinding pain in his heart.

_Why is everything falling apart?_ Danny asked himself. He had no clue as to what the answer was but it was ripping him apart from the inside.

He wondered what had happened to Valerie that had caused her to accuse him of something he didn't do (and he would never call anyone those things, let alone his best friend's girlfriend). It bothered him and he knew he would have to talk with her soon, when she wasn't near her watch dog, Tucker.

Then his mind wondered to Tucker, his supposed best friend. It saddened him that his best friend would turn his back on him so quickly for a girl he'd only been dating for six months.

Sam, his best friend from the time he was five years old, had abandoned him along with Tucker. Neither of them had listened to his side of the story, immediately trusting Valerie's lie. It really hurt him to know that when it came down to the wire, his friends would rather jump off than stick with him. If it was being truthful, it hurt more that Sam had abandoned him than Tucker. Tucker was his best friend, almost like a brother, but Sam meant more to him than a friend. And that thought caused a spike of pain to pierce his heart.

Sighing, Danny rolled onto his side, elevating his right leg on a small cushion his mother always placed at the foot of his bed. It helped the pain to die down even more and soon, Danny fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

"Danny, wake up!" A loud shout startled Danny from his sleep. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he yawned and stretched, his body making him painfully away of the injuries to his knee and wrist.

Gasping breathlessly in pain, he curled in on himself. Danny wished he didn't have to get up at all.

But his mother was unrelenting.

Maddie Fenton crashed through the door to her son's room and, oblivious to his injuries, bruises and the dark gash on his forehead, ripped the covers from his body and threw open the curtains. She hummed to herself, feeling the start of a brand new day bring a smile to her face. She turned back to face Danny and frowned when she saw he had barely moved. "Daniel Fenton, it's time to get up and get ready for school. Now, up!"

Danny sighed mournfully. Glancing meaningfully at Maddie, he gestured for her to leave the room so he could get up and get dressed, not wanting her to see the bruises on his arms. Maddie smiled again at her son and swiftly left the room. Danny obeyed his mother and rose from his comfortable bed, exposing his bruised body to the light of day.

Danny dressed for school in his signature blue jeans, red sneakers and white t-shirt. But this time, he wore a black long sleeved shirt underneath to hide the bruises on his arms, which now had a tinge of green to them. His blue backpack was slung over his shoulder as he made his way down the stairs.

Laughter echoed through the house. It was coming from the kitchen, where Danny knew his mother, father and sister would be. He absently wondered what was so funny as he walked into the room. The sight that greeted him was one that he'd seen many times before.

Jack Fenton was stuffing his face with waffles, Jazz was surrounded by textbooks and loose papers, and Maddie was tinkering with another invention.

Danny hobbled over to the fruit bowl and grabbed an apple. "Morning Mum, Dad. Morning, Jazz."

Jack grunted in response. Maddie didn't even look up from her tinkering. Jazz fixed him with a hard stare. "Danny, can't you see I'm busy here? And aren't you supposed to be at school in ten minutes?" Jazz said sternly before she looked back through her work.

Because Jazz was a senior now, she didn't have to go to school at the same time as Danny on the days where she had a free period in the morning. So she didn't need to leave for school for another hour but Danny still had to get to school on time.

Snapping up to look at the clock, Danny saw that his older sister was right; he was due to be at school in ten minutes or he'd be late.

Cursing under his breath, Danny laid his forgotten apple on the kitchen bench and ran for the door. He transformed after checking for any witnesses and flew towards the school at top speed. He made it there just in time for the bell to ring. He ran through the halls to his locker, quickly depositing his backpack and afternoon books, and then rushed to class. First up was English class with Lancer.

"Mr Fenton! Late again, I see," Lancer said, smirking at his good fortune. Punishing Danny Fenton was one of his most favourite forms of entertainment. And it always gave him a thrill of pleasure when he could punish Danny Fenton.

Ice blue eyes pleaded with him not to give him another detention but Lancer didn't care. "Detention after school, Mr Fenton. Now, sit down and open your book to chapter 17. We'll be reading chapters 17 through to 20 today." Lancer turned back to the class during the last sentence and almost mechanically, the class obeyed. But their attention was on Danny, their eyes watching him as he walked to his seat at the very back of the room. Two empty spaces on either side of him cut him off from the other students. _Sam and Tucker used to sit beside me_, Danny thought, until Valerie Grey changed all that.

Glancing over at Valerie's desk, Danny saw her watching him with a calculating stare, a smirk on her lips. He shot her a confused look. Valerie just smiled and turned back to her book. Feeling more confused, Danny turned back to his book but his mind kept going back to the look on Valerie's face. Did she enjoy the fall-out of his and Tucker's friendship?

That thought bothered Danny all day.

At lunch, he didn't even bother going to line up for lunch, he didn't feel hungry enough to eat. Instead, he kept the money in bag. He sat outside, feeling the breeze through his hair, thinking. He didn't know what Valerie's game plan was but he was definitely going to find out.

The rest of the day went by quickly and before Danny knew it, it was time for his afternoon detention with Lancer. Lancer glared at him when he walked into the room and took a seat at the front, as was custom in his detentions with Lancer.

A small stack of pages slapped down on the desk in front of Danny. "Mr Fenton, in this detention, you will write 'I must come to school on time' one hundred times. You will also number each line so I can see that you have completed one hundred lines. Let me know when you're done."

Danny sighed and began writing. Half an hour later, his injured wrist aching even more, Danny was finished. Lancer looked over Danny's lines a moment or two longer than he needed to. It made Danny squirm and he smiled inwardly seeing it.

"Well, Mr Fenton, I hope this is a lesson to you about coming to class on time," Lancer said.

"Yes, Mr Lancer," Danny said monotonously. He just wanted to get home faster.

Lancer let Danny go after reading through his lines and Danny rushed to his locker. Putting in the code and throwing the door open with a bang, Danny grabbed his backpack and loaded it up with all of his school books for the night. When he was done, Danny moved to shut the door to his locker when the door slammed closed in front of him. Silently cursing his bad luck, Danny slowly looked up, right into the blazing eyes of Dash Baxter.


	4. Chapter 4: House Maid

_Howdy all! Time again for another chapter of Rumour Mill! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed so far! I read all of the reviews for this story and it's so amazing to see such positive reactions from you guys._

_The next chapter of this story is half way through being written but I have major plans in the next few chapters, starting with the next chapter. This one also plays a part in something major later. So please don't kill me because this chapter is smaller than the last but the next few will be much longer than this one._

_Enjoy this chapter and reviews are love!_

**X-X**

Danny trudged home, holding his sore left shoulder that Dash had bashed into the concrete wall at the end of the row of lockers. More bruises littered his body, this time more focussed on his legs, hidden by his blue jeans. Dash had been smarter this time, targeting the places no-one would see or even think to look. He'd stomped on the toes of Danny's right foot, which also had his sore knee, more than once and Danny could feel them swelling in his shoes. Dash had kicked his knee the opposite way to last time, which resulted in more pain for Danny.

While Dash was hitting Danny, he kept his class ring on and this caused small cuts to appear in Danny's clothes and skin. The blood from these cuts didn't touch the white t-shirt he was wearing but he knew that his black undershirt had absorbed most of the blood.

Danny sighed painfully, his voice hoarse from screaming. No-one had come to investigate his screams, much like the day before. Either they hadn't heard (which could be possible since school had let out for the day) or they didn't care.

He grimaced as scabbed over gash on his forehead pulled with his sigh.

Danny wasn't looking forward to getting home. He knew he'd walk in the door, half expecting to be greeted warmly as his family used to do so weeks before, only to be sent into the basement for more work.

The large sign that said 'Fenton Works' appeared before Danny. He crossed the street carefully on his sore knee and toes. He stumbled just before he reached the stairs, twisting his knee further. A hiss of pain escaped his lips.

The door at the top of the stairs was thrown open and someone grabbed Danny by the back of his shirt, pulling him into the house. The person set him down on his feet roughly and Danny swayed. Bile rose in his throat as the pain in his knee caused him to feel nauseous.

"Danny, my boy! Good to see you home. Your mother and I have made a bit of a mess in the lab. You wouldn't mind cleaning it would you? I still need to have my pre-dinner nap," Jack boomed cheerfully at Danny, clapping him on the shoulder roughly.

Danny flinched and didn't respond to Jack. He just hobbled over to the cupboard where all the cleaning supplies were, gathered what he thought he'd need and journeyed down the stairs.

'A bit of a mess' couldn't even begin to cover just how much of a mess his parents' had made. Green ectoplasm goo hung from the ceiling in thick ropes. Some of it dripped down onto the ghost portal. Glass shards glittered around the floor. Black scorch marks fanned out from the middle of the room, making it look like an explosion had gone off. And Danny was pretty sure that one had.

Danny transformed. The ceiling alone required his ghost powers and he really didn't feel like hobbling around on his leg.

He grabbed the mop and floated up to the ceiling. He scrubbed at the ectoplasm on the ceiling and it fell, splashing against the floor. The ceiling also had scorch marks in the middle as well so Danny had to float back down to grab some cleaning soap and returned back to the roof to scrub the scorch marks off. The scorch marks on the roof took the longest and the most effort from Danny out of the entire room.

When he was finished with the ceiling, Danny cleaned the floor, using the specialised vacuum cleaner his parents had invented for such occasions to suck the ectoplasm away. It also sucked up the shards of glass that were all over the floor.

Danny filled up a bucket full of hot water, mixed with a bit of floor soap, and pushed the mop into it. He squeezed the excess water out and began mopping the scorch marks. It took him nearly an hour to get the marks mostly cleared but the floor had stained too much for it to be completely cleaned.

Next Danny moved onto the ghost portal. Something had bashed into the metal frame of the ghost portal, leaving a sizeable dent in the metal. Danny didn't see it until he cleaned most of the ectoplasm away. He sighed, knowing there was nothing that could be done about it until his parents noticed it. He wouldn't try to fix it. If he did, it would just cause problems.

So Danny cleaned and cleaned until his fingers felt numb. He cleaned until his wrist throbbed with renewed pain and he felt too drained that he, without wanting to, transformed back into his human form.

He slowly ascended the stairs, his stomach growling pitifully. Danny felt the strain in his body from over 24 hours without food but Danny couldn't bring himself to look in the kitchen for food. With the pain he was in, it would just come back up and his parents would get mad about the wasted food. Not that Danny believed that there would be any food left. _Dad always eats all of the leftovers before they have a chance to __**be**__ leftovers_, Danny thought with a tinge of bitterness. He was too exhausted to really feel bitter about his father devouring all of the food.

The stairs to his room proved to be a harder challenge than the stairs from the lab. The lab stairs were bare, no carpet or rug on them. The ones up to Danny's room had soft blue carpet that any other time, Danny would have thought as the best carpet in the house. His foot slipped on the edge of one of the stairs, sending him crashing face first onto the steps. He cried out softly, trying not to wake anyone. Tears came to his eyes as his nose throbbed between them. Danny didn't think it was broken, just severely bruised and something had torn inside as blood was beginning to pour out of Danny's nose. He pinched the end of his nostrils together and ran awkwardly to the bathroom.

_Another injury, another stupid day_, Danny thought. _When will all of this end? _


	5. Chapter 5: The Reason Why

_Hi all! Back with another chapter again. I wasn't going to update until next week but considering today is Halloween, I thought that I would update this for you guys who are waiting for your next Rumour Mill fix._

_Now, one reviewer asked me if Tucker, Sam and Jazz are all OOC. Well, for Tucker and Sam, I guess it would seem that way, so yeah, it's probably true for this story. But I really could see all of this happening with Valerie, especially since Tucker has already turned on Danny once and the same with Sam. They've already done it in the show so what's so unbelievable that they would do it this time?_

_As for Jazz, she is normally a bit rude to Danny anyway. I'm just putting more attention on it. _

_Clockwork has been brought up by a few reviewers as well. And originally, I wasn't sure how to include him in, although I knew I wanted to. Now, I have an idea on how to include him in and he might come in around chapter 10 or 11, maybe later. So he won't be in this story for a while. But he will be in it. Actually, a fair few of the ghosts will be in it. Anyone who can guess a ghost that will be included will get a shout-out next chapter._

_The next few chapters are gonna be intense, especially this chapter and the seventh. And I know a lot of you are really going to hate certain characters in this chapter and the next chapter._

_But for now, enjoy this chapter and I can't wait to hear from you guys. :)_

**X-X**

The next few days blurred by for Danny, each seeming just as bad as the day before, and soon enough, it was Friday. Luckily, Dash had been too busy with football training and his own detention to bother hurting Danny. His injuries were healing rapidly and he could walk properly once again. His nose was still tinted yellow but even that was fading fast. Danny knew that it should have taken at least a full week for the bruising to even get the stage of being yellow. He assumed that his ghost abilities kicked up the ante on his body's natural healing ability.

Tucker, Valerie and Sam still hung out together, watching Danny cautiously during classes and keeping an eye out in case it seemed like he was coming over to talk to Valerie during breaks. They wouldn't let Danny get close, even by accident. They'd glare at him, yell and curse him until he walked away. A few times, Danny had not gone to class because they were in it with him and he couldn't deal with all of it again so soon.

Valerie had cheered up during the course of the week. She smiled at Tucker, always tucked into his side. She could glance at Danny when her watchdogs' attentions were somewhere else, smile like his misery was her own personal joke, and turn back to paying attention to either Tucker, Sam or class. Danny would talk to her, soon. But her watchdogs needed to be distracted first.

Sitting in Maths class with Tucker and Sam was awkward for Danny. He felt their eyes on his back throughout the class and he squirmed in his seat. His wrist was still slightly tender from continued use after it was injured. Danny figured it would be fine within the next day.

Their teacher had assigned group homework and for once, she had put Danny with a different group of students, none of whom were any better than Sam or Tucker towards him. They would glance at him when he spoke but turn back to their own conversations just as quickly. By the end of class, Danny had decided just to do the homework on his own. No-one was going to help him with it but why did that mean he had to just sit there and wait for the bad grade to be slapped onto his desk?

The bell rung for class and the students rushed out, Danny being the last to leave. Instead of heading outside, he headed into the boy's bathroom. After checking that he was the only one in there, Danny concentrated and a moment later, there was two of him. His ghostly double phased out of the bathroom, heading towards the principal's office, while the real Danny headed outside. He sat at a table right at the back of the school grounds, well away from Valerie, Sam and Tucker.

He waited.

Two minutes later, the voice of the principal came on over the PA system. "Would Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley please report to my office? Thank you."

Danny smiled inwardly. His ghostly double had completed the distraction perfectly. Concentrating again, he phased the double out of the principal and made it invisible, so the other students wouldn't notice it fly over them, and got it to phase back into himself.

Sam and Tucker stood from where they were seated against the trunk of a large tree with Valerie, brushed off their clothes and headed inside. Tucker dropped one last kiss on Valerie's head before heading after Sam. He didn't like leaving Valerie alone, especially since Danny was looking in their direction but it couldn't be helped. Tucker figured that Danny would leave Valerie alone because of all the stares and yelling that Tucker and Sam had thrown his way in the past week were a clear warning to steer clear.

Waiting until Sam and Tucker were out of sight before making his way over to Valerie. She watched him approach, knowing what he would be talking to her about. She smirked. Finally, she thought.

"Valerie, could I have a word?" Danny said cautiously. He wanted to make sure that anything he said couldn't be thrown back at him from her. There were also a couple of cheerleaders nearby who he knew were trying to listen in on the conversation. He didn't know if they could hear but he hoped they could so if Valerie did say he said something later, the cheerleaders would know the truth.

"Sure Danny. What's up?" Valerie said cheerfully.

Danny sat cross-legged across from Valerie, making sure there was plenty of space between them but so he didn't have to yell for her to hear and vice versa.

"Last week, you told Tucker I had said some things to you; that I had called you horrible names. You and I both know I never said anything bad towards you or about you, so why did you lie? Why did you cause all of this?" Danny asked. He needed to know what he had done to Valerie for her to do this to him.

Valerie laughed cruelly. "Because, Danny, you took my Tucker from me. I was simply taking him back. Having Sam come to my side as well was an unexpected surprise but not unwelcome." She smirked, watching as Danny's face fell into an expression of shock.

A lot of things had shocked Danny. Figuring out that the new ghost hunter was Valerie was a shock. His parents' recent treatment of him was a shock. But this one definitely took the cake.

"I _stole_ him from _you_?" Danny asked incredulously. "How on Earth did I do that? He's my best friend!"

Valerie's smile dropped and she glared at Danny with blazing brown eyes. "Tucker is _mine_, Danny. He's _my_ boyfriend, _my_ best friend. And I'm his girlfriend, his _best_ friend. You have no place between us and I was sick of you always coming first. I saw an opportunity to get what I wanted and I took it."

Danny's jaw dropped. "You were _jealous_ because I'm Tucker's best friend and he cares about me?"

Valerie glared harder. "Past tense, Danny. You _were_ Tucker's best friend. Now he's mine and he isn't coming back to you any time soon so just get over it already! I finally have what I want and I will not have you ruining it!"

Something over Danny's shoulder caught Valerie's eye and she smirked at Danny before tears began to fill her eyes and she let out a pathetic sob. Danny was really confused as to what Valerie was doing but soon figured it out when two hands grabbed his shoulders and roughly pulled him away from Valerie.

Tucker's brown eyes glared hatefully at his best friend. _**Former**__ best friend_, Tucker had to remind himself. "What did you say to her?" He hissed.

Danny just stared at him, still shell-shocked from Valerie's confession.

Tucker shook him. "What did you say to her?!" He roared, gesturing to Valerie who was now cowering in Sam's side. Her amethyst eyes were bright with anger. Tucker growled as Danny once again failed to answer him.

Danny yelped when he fell to the ground as Tucker let him go. Tucker towered over him, instantly reminding Danny of Dash. He fought the urge to curl into a ball; fought the shiver of fear that threatened to make its way up his spine.

"Daniel, what did you say to her?" Tucker asked one final time. He was getting impatient with Danny's lack of response.

Danny finally looked up at Tucker and schooled his features. He would not have Tucker see his fear. "I asked her why she told you I called her names when I never did so. She told me that it was because, as your best friend, I kept coming first."

"You never came first, Danny. It was always Valerie first," Tucker said hatefully. He ignored the feeling in his stomach that contradicted his statement. Danny always came first, before Valerie, before Sam, before anyone else. But Tucker didn't want that to be thrown back in his face.

To Danny, those words felt like a punch in the stomach. _Tucker really does hate me_, he thought sadly. He looked over at Sam, hoping to see some of her belief in Valerie gone but the belief was as strong as ever. Valerie really had both of them wrapped around her little finger. _Sam doesn't care anymore either. What did I do to deserve this?_ Danny wondered.

Danny stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Without so much as a glance in Tucker's direction, Danny headed inside, fully intending to go to the study hall to get started on the weekend's homework, particularly the maths' assignment. It was lunch time anyway, so he had more than half an hour to work on his homework before his next class.


End file.
